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I'm Dale Meyer and I am pleased to welcome you to Mission Works

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Thanks to Donors. In our last episode

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we spoke with Dr.

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Thomas Zelt, who has pioneered

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a course here at

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Concordia Seminary an intensive course in Israel. With us

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today are two students who took the course Graham Jenkins and Janis

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Mikits. Welcome, introduce yourselves a little bit more to our, our

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donors, Graham. Sure.

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My name is Graham Jenkins

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I studied mechanical engineering at the University of Maine and 

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where I got my undergrad.

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Did ROTC in college was commissioned as a second lieutenant

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in the Army Corps of Engineers just down the road at Fort Leonard Wood

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about 2 hours away.

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Spent a number of years in the military that after that, went out to

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work as a civilian engineer, mostly for the automotive industry.

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And at that point, I heard the call and decided that it was time to

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come to Concordia Seminary be a pastor and God's flock.

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Wonderful.

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And did you serve overseas?

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Yes, Afghanistan 2013 to 2014.

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We are graduating real life pastors and Janis. My name is Janis Mikits

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 I was born and raised in a small town in Indiana named 

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Beech Grove, attended West Point earned a degree in economics and

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environmental engineering served in the military for 20 years, as an

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artillery officer as a college professor

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and then as a diplomat.

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And if I remember correctly, the Lutheran Hour, had something with

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you

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coming to Concordia Seminary. Yes, sir.

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During my last assignment

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I was listening to Lutheran Hour and because I was assigned to Germany

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and we didn't have an LCMS congregation nearby and you were

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actually a guest for that episode and I've been praying to God for a

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sign of his will for me in my life and you came on there and talked

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about the need for people to enter the ministry because congregations

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simply had no pastor. And Holy Spirit reached down and grabbed me

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and one year later, I was sitting here at the Seminary. Yeah and I couldn't believe the story when

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you told it to me, but this is the way the Mission Works,

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 it moves forward.

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Would you please tell us your experiences?

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They say satisfied

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customer is a happy

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customer. Tell us the top drawer things from your time in Israel. Yeah, as

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Christians

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we know that the Bible is both history, as well as the Law and Gospel

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message.

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But being there Israel sitting on site, doing a Bible study in

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the location, where the word was written was an unreal

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experience. To be reading through a scripture

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a lot of times people will come to a place name and it just at the

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register

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so they just kind of skim on by.

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But these are real places where a real events actually happened.

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And then when you see these places in the relation to one another and

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you're able to connect the dots in such a way, it just makes scripture

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come alive.

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For instance, when you're sitting on the North Shore of the Sea of

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Galilee, which was likely the area where the Sermon of the Mount take

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place, you really get this image that as Jesus is

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speaking through a sermon, he's, he's touching on visual cues and

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imagery that people sitting on the mount themselves looking out at the

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Sea of Galilee would have seen it would have connected with his message.

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Jesus was a practical teacher, he was a real guy at a real place.

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Before we started taping you mentioned Janis that this is

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coming at the start of your ministry.

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Would you repeat that and expound on it a little bit?

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Yes sir, in many cases congregations lovingly

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give a gift to their pastors usually at retirement, or maybe after

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20 or 25 years of service.

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And in many cases, it's, it's a trip to Israel and, and that's very

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kind and generous of the congregation.

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But what I noticed on this trip is that the the lessons that I learned

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on this trip and on in this class will enable me to share them with

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people for 20 to 30 years of

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Ministry throughout the time.

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And in fact, this past Sunday, after I returned from Israel, my RV

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Supervisor was unable to teach the Bible study class that we normally

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have on Sunday mornings and he asked me to fill in for him, and with I

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shared some of the lessons that I learned on this trip

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with over 50 of the congregation members. You didn't have to research

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that the topics it did, you know? No.

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Been there done that. And it and it was, it was part of the Sea of

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Galilee.

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And and so, we were able to, to talk about how Jesus came down and met

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people where they were. You know, I am so proud to be connected with

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Concordia Seminary, and to be a donor to a seminary

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that promotes the mission in this way.

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Let me ask you the most important question of all.

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What did this trip do for you

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in your relationship and faith in Jesus? Well it definitely did strengthen my faith that

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the Bible is God's word and it's God word delivered to us

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exactly

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as he as he intended it. Like, I said, being on-site and being being

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in the areas where it was written, seeing the places that they were

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talking about walking, the path that Jesus walked it just it makes it

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that much more real.

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And then having those visual cues that you can connect in your head to

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scripture hammers the message home and solidifies it and makes it that much

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easier to communicate.

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I would largely echo what Graham said.

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I mean so often, when we read God's word it, we digest it, but we, we

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don't bear in mind of the concrete nature.

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God is a Creator and he comes down to his creation to lovingly care

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for it and to interact with it.

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And being in the Holy Land, seeing where Jesus walked, and where he

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taught made it really come home for me.

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And I am sure you visualized him actually being their own kind of

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hologram fashion, right? Most certainly.

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And and the great thing is because of what you've learned and the

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work of the Holy Spirit, one day, we actually are going to see him

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face-to-face.

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I want to thank you for being with us.

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I've gone Israel myself but only after being in the ministry

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some years and my visits were not of the depth in our students

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experience.

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I'm glad we could share this with

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you today.

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It's a hands-on way by which Mission Works

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Thanks to Donors.